Protest to 'expose' Islamic cleric in Saylorsburg today

An Islamic cleric who remains mostly unknown to Americans will be forced again into the spotlight in the Poconos today.

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By JENNA EBERSOLE

poconorecord.com

By JENNA EBERSOLE

Posted Aug. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By JENNA EBERSOLE

Posted Aug. 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

An Islamic cleric who remains mostly unknown to Americans will be forced again into the spotlight in the Poconos today.

Fethullah Gülen is perhaps one of the most well-known figures in Turkey but has lived quietly at a Saylorsburg retreat center since the 1990s. A second protest this summer is scheduled for 2 p.m. today a few miles from the Mount Eaton Road complex.

By midday Friday, the number of attendees on a Facebook event page had climbed to more than 280. The page resembles one from July, with a mix of Turkish and English and a large "Expose the Gülen Movement" banner.

Stuart Klingel of Klingel's Farm said Thursday that traffic congestion wasn't too bad at the last protest, though residents on Mount Eaton Road itself saw more problems.

"The people I've dealt with have been nothing but courteous," he said about the center, adding though that people have a right to protest.

The mainly Turkish-American protesters continue to lodge myriad accusations against Gülen, with representatives from his movement countering each as false.

Svante Cornell, director of the Central-Asia Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, weighed in last month on Gülen.

Cornell said Turks are divided roughly down the middle on Gülen and the Gülen movement after the cleric emerged in the 1970s as a modernist force in Turkish Islam.

Gülen's modernism initially fit with the military's focus on Turkish nationalism after a 1980 military coup, Cornell said by email. But after the first Islamist government was elected in Turkey in 1997, the military realized it had lost control of political Islam.

The military re-emphasized secularism, forcing the government out and, although Gülen was not connected with the 1997 Islamist party, he was also seen as a threat to be purged, Cornell said.

A leaked videotape showed Gülen, appearing to urge supporters to "be very careful, expand their positions in the government, but not rise up too soon before their strength is sufficient," Cornell said.

Some believed the video proved Gülen's "nefarious plan to Islamicize Turkey," Cornell said. But supporters argued the tape was taken out of context or altered. Gülen decided to stay in America.

Cornell said the movement's goals are difficult to determine, provoking conspiracy theories similar to beliefs about Freemasons or Opus Dei. But supporters also say they have no political ambitions despite the size of the organization.

Conspiracy theorists point to people in the Gülen movement who hold key positions in Turkey, such as in the judiciary and police or media, Cornell said. Several arrests in Turkey since 2008 of some who offended the movement have also provoked questions.

But the Gülen movement is unique in the Muslim world, Cornell said, with thousands of people well educated in western-style institutions. It preaches moderation, co-existence and harmony with other religions.

"There are simply not too many of such movements," Cornell said, adding that it may have gotten carried away in Turkey in the mid-2000s with zealousness but retracted later.